from Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press,

What is it worth paying to jettison an underachieving player?

That’s the topic of this edition of Detroit Red Wings mailbag. The NHL’s 32nd club, the Seattle Kraken, will stock their team next June from a list of players made available by 30 teams (Vegas is exempt).

The Kraken has to select one player from every club, and has quite the example to follow, as the Golden Knights used the 2017 expansion draft to build a team that went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final in its inaugural season. The Knights made the playoffs again in 2019 and 2020.

Teams can protect either seven forwards, three defensemen and one goaltender, or eight skaters (regardless of position) and one goaltender. I laid out a scenario of who the Wings are likely to protect July 26, noting that teams can make pre-arranged deals to decide who Seattle will draft.

A reader, C. Josefs, suggested Steve Yzerman should do so to get rid of either Justin Abdelkader or Frans Nielsen, writing “I would not be opposed to Yzerman shedding a bad contract if the “sweetener” was a third- or fourth-round draft choice or even a prospect. … Is Seattle in the same powerful position as Vegas was to demand high compensation for taking on bad contracts?”

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